Effect of Ligation of Pancreatic Ducts on Chronic Pancreatitis

Abstract

There is no universally effective form of therapy in the treatment of chronic pancreatitis. To be sure, some of the patients with this condition experience temporary remission or are helped by the various procedures currently in use. When there is coexisting disease of the biliary tract, cholecystectomy and T-tube drainage of the common duct, or sphincterotomy, may control further exacerbations of pancreatitis. When pancreatic lithiasis or intermittent obstruction of the pancreatic duct or ducts exist, drainage of the ducts of the pancreas sometimes affords satisfactory control. However, there remains a group of patients for whom these surgical measures fail to halt the devastating exacerbations of chronic pancreatitis. It is in these patients that subtotal or total pancreatectomy has been advocated and used with considerable success. Both subtotal and total pancreatectomy are formidable procedures and carry with them high operative morbidity and mortality rates. What is needed then is a procedure